Ex-security chief: Israel needs to attack Iran to stop nukes, ‘ring of fire'
Amidror said, “there might come a situation where we will have to act directly in Iran to stop the Iranians. The world is not ready to act…not NATO, not the US…they prefer to close their eyes.”
By YONAH JEREMY BOBA general view of the Bushehr main nuclear reactor, Iran(photo credit: REUTERS/RAHEB HOMAVANDI)
Israel will likely need to attack Iran directly to stop it from developing nuclear weapons and a “ring of fire” around Israel, ex-national security council chief Maj. Gen. Yaakov Amidror of the Jerusalem Institute for Strategy and Security (JISS) said on Monday.Speaking at the INSS annual Arms Control conference in Tel Aviv, Amidror said, “there might come a situation where we will have to act directly in Iran to stop the Iranians. The world is not ready to act…not NATO, not the US…they prefer to close their eyes.”“It might be costly, it might be problematic, it’s not going to be easy,” but when it comes to ensuring Israel’s security, he said he did not see any alternative.Amidror said that, “there is a strong connection between a nuclear Iran and the ring of fire around Israel. With a nuclear umbrella, Iran would be free to build a ring of fire around Israel” at which point, it would be too late for Jerusalem to stop either the nuclear program or Iran’s destabilizing behavior in the region.The former national security council chief described the “ring of fire” as Iran’s mobilization of forces, who can attack Israel in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Iran with a land-bridge to move advanced weapons directly through those areas.He also warned that if the world did not stop Iran from going nuclear, Saudi Arabia and Turkey would also go nuclear and multiple Middle East countries would eventually have weapons, which could potentially devastate Moscow, Berlin and Washington DC.
